A cutting-edge sourcebook, “Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation” brings together highly-respected professionals working in the psychosis field with renowned clinicians and researchers from the fields of traumatic stress, dissociation and the dissociative disorders, and will be of interest to those working with or studying psychotic or dissociative disorders, as well as trauma-related conditions such as borderline personality disorder or complex post-traumatic stress disorder. It makes an invaluable contribution to the burgeoning literature on severe mental disorders and serious life events. The book has three sections: Connecting trauma and dissociation to psychosis - an exploration of the links between trauma, dissociation and psychosis from a wide range of historical and theoretical perspectives. Comparing psychotic and dissociative disorders - a presentation of empirical and clinical perspectives on similarities and differences between the two sets of disorders. Assessing and treating hybrid and boundary conditions - consideration of existing and novel diagnostic categories, such as borderline personality disorder and dissociative psychosis that blend or border dissociative and psychotic disorders, along with treatment perspectives emphasising humanistic and existential concerns.

Contents:

PART 1: CONNECTING TRAUMA AND DISSOCIATION TO PSYCHOSIS: HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Historical conceptions of dissociation and psychosis: 19th and early 20th century perspectives on severe psychopathology

• Hysterical psychosis: A historical review and empirical evaluation

• Association and dissociation in the historical concept of schizophrenia

• Ego-fragmentation in schizophrenia: A severe dissociation of self-experience

• Delusional atmosphere, the psychotic prodrome, and de-contextualised memories

• The complex overlaps between dissociation and schizotypy

• Pierre Janet on hallucinations, paranoia, and schizophrenia

• From hysteria to chronic relational trauma disorder: The history of borderline personality disorder and its links with dissociation and psychosis

• An attachment perspective on schizophrenia: the role of disorganised attachment, dissociation, and metallization

PART 2: COMPARING PSYCHOTIC AND DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS: RESEARCH AND CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Childhood trauma in psychotic and dissociative disorders

• Dissociative symptoms in schizophrenia

• Psychotic symptoms in complex dissociative disorders

• Advances in assessment: The differential diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia

• Cognitive perspectives on dissociation and psychosis: Differences in the processing of threat

• Depersonalisation disorder and schizotypal personality disorder

• Contributions of traumatic stress studies to the neurobiology of dissociation and dissociative disorders: Implications for schizophrenia

• Treating dissociative and psychotic disorders psychodynamically

PART 3: ASSESSING AND TREATING HYBRID AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS: CLINICAL AND EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVES

• Dissociative psychosis: Clinical and theoretical aspects

• Trauma-based dissociative hallucinosis: Diagnosis and treatment

• Dissociative schizophrenia

• The role of double binds, reality testing, and chronic relational trauma in the genesis and treatment of borderline personality disorder

• Pharmacotherapy in the collaborative treatment of trauma-induced dissociation and psychosis

• Accepting and working with voices: The Maastricht approach

• Dissociation, psychosis, and spirituality: Whose voices are we hearing?